The Lone Star Conservative

A political party can say it’s pro-life, but the real test is whether it’s willing to apply equal protection under the law to the unborn. With the Texas GOP convention days away, I walk through the brewing platform fight over replacing strong “abolish abortion” language with a funding-focused approach tied to the Thriving Texas Families program. I’m not ضد helping moms, pregnancy resource centers,...

An “Ebola dashboard” launches in Harris County right as officials tell Houston there’s nothing to worry about, and that contradiction sets the tone for a packed Friday show. I walk through what the dashboard is supposed to do, how airport screening and monitoring would work during a surge of international travel, and why public health messaging can feel less like transparency and more like a signa...

A flesh-eating livestock parasite just crossed from “far away” to “detected in Texas,” and that should change how we think about border security, agriculture, and basic competence. We walk through what the New World screwworm is, why ranchers and border counties are sounding alarms, and why the food supply and Texas economy do not get protected by press releases and social media arguments. If prev...

A major shake-up hits Texas election politics: Secretary of State Jane Nelson announces she’s stepping down, and we unpack why that matters far beyond Austin headlines. From the way primaries are run to who actually ends up representing voters, we walk through the real-world consequences of open primaries and the argument that party nominations should be protected as a basic freedom of association...

Something has changed in Texas public life: we keep needing lawsuits and fine-print statutes to stop behavior that used to be policed by basic standards, community norms, and common sense. I start with the latest example, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suing the City of Denton over a planned “Big Gay Swim Day” at a city-owned pool and the allegation that organizers intended to offer gender-neut...

A Dallas judge tried to keep a COVID-era courtroom mask mandate alive in 2026 and the Texas Supreme Court just drew a hard line. We break down what the court actually said, why facial visibility and open access matter in a functioning justice system, and what it means when one official’s “health guidance” turns into a rule for everyone who walks through a public courtroom door. If you’ve ever wond...

Political campaigns love one-liners because they’re fast, shareable, and usually wrong. We slow the whole thing down and ask a harder question: if a candidate suddenly sounds “moderate,” what does their actual record say when you line up the quotes, the votes, and the policy goals? We start with Texas AG politics and the way James Talarico is getting framed in the media, including how “intentional...

A runoff win can feel like a footnote until you realize who controls the levers of Texas government. We start with the races most people skip and why down-ballot offices like Railroad Commissioner can shape the oil and gas industry, regulation, and the direction of the state. From there, we make the hard, practical case for how to think about the November general election when your choices aren’t...

A school district lawsuit turns into a much bigger fight over who really holds power in America. We start with the federal civil rights case filed against Houston ISD and then zoom out to the constitutional framework underneath so many modern political battles: what the First Amendment was meant to restrain, how the Fourteenth Amendment reshaped the relationship between states and Washington, and...

Memorial Day is over. The question isn’t whether we feel grateful, it’s whether we act like it. We start with a direct case for civic responsibility in a constitutional representative republic and why Texas runoff election day matters more than most people want to admit. If we don’t participate, we don’t get to act surprised when the culture and the country keep sliding in the wrong direction. Fro...

Memorial Day only works if we tell the truth about it. We’re not talking about a three-day weekend or “patriot energy” we’re talking about graves, families, and the cost that made normal life possible. I walk through where the holiday comes from, why it was once called Decoration Day, and why a number like 1.3 million Americans dead in U.S. wars should hit you like a punch, not a trivia fact. We a...

Somebody in Texas politics always says they want unity, right up until the next attack ad drops. We start with the Cornyn vs Paxton runoff and the Texas GOP chair’s public call to stop the negative advertising, then dig into why one side agrees to cool it off while the other promises to keep swinging. With early voting ending and Election Day near, we talk strategy, character, and the real risk th...

A “random” shooting spree in Austin, an abortion-pill indictment in Montgomery County, smart glasses that may see more than you think, and a lottery jackpot that looks less like luck and more like a system being gamed. That’s the thread we pull today, because every one of these stories points to the same question: what happens when institutions stop acting like they’re accountable to the public? W...

Trump drops a major endorsement while Texans are already voting, and it instantly reshapes the Republican Senate runoff conversation. We walk through President Donald Trump backing Ken Paxton over John Cornyn, why the timing is so unusual, and what it signals about loyalty, leverage, and how much power a national figure should have in a state primary. I also talk frankly about the risk of endorsem...

A Texas children’s hospital agreeing to a $10 million settlement is not just a headline, it is a turning point with ripple effects across healthcare, law, and the culture fight. We walk through what the Texas Children’s Hospital agreement reportedly requires: halting youth gender transition procedures, firing doctors, tightening compliance, and creating a fully funded detransition clinic. We also...

A Houston official warns that the city budget is squeezing working families, then his office turns around and requests a nearly $4,000 sofa. That single detail opens a bigger question we can’t dodge: when leaders preach restraint but spend like it’s Monopoly money, how are regular taxpayers supposed to trust any “fee,” any rate hike, or any promise that the money will be used the right way? We als...

A city-owned water park gets booked for a “religion-only” event, the flyers hit social media, and suddenly Texas is staring down a basic question with huge consequences: what rules apply when a private group rents a public facility? We walk through the Epic Waters controversy in Grand Prairie, why Governor Greg Abbott’s office threatened to revoke more than $530,000 in state grant funding, and how...

Houston’s leaders say they can stabilize the city budget without raising taxes, but the details tell a more complicated story. We walk through Mayor John Whitmire’s plan to close a massive Houston budget shortfall, including a $5 monthly trash administrative fee and a new right-of-way charge tied to water and wastewater. Then we get into why Controller Chris Hollins is calling the plan risky, what...

The Supreme Court keeps the abortion pill mifepristone widely available while the courts fight it out, and that single move exposes a bigger truth: modern policy spreads at the speed of telehealth, the mailbox, and a pharmacy counter. We walk through what the Court actually did, why procedure matters, and why the moral and public-health consequences still feel immediate when access expands before...

A lot of politics is downstream from culture, and we start there on Star Wars Day with a deceptively simple question: why do the stories that stick usually keep a clean line between good and evil? We talk about what happens when modern entertainment tries to blur moral reality, why audiences can feel the “message” coming, and why objective truth still shows up in the best storytelling. Then we shi...

Houston wakes up to a packed Friday news cycle, and we dig straight into the stories shaping Texas policy and everyday life. We start with Attorney General Ken Paxton expanding a Texas H-1B visa fraud investigation into dozens of businesses, including allegations of “ghost office” operations that exist on paper but not in practice. I lay out why work visa loopholes matter, how fraud can thrive whe...

A single lawsuit can expose an entire incentive structure. We start with Texas moving to shut down a Houston area “birth tourism” operation accused of bringing Chinese nationals to the state to give birth and secure US citizenship for their children, including allegations of visa coaching and deceptive medical claims. That story turns into a blunt debate about birthright citizenship, immigration p...

A commercial driver who can’t read road signs shouldn’t be behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler, yet Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is now investigating trucking schools accused of certifying unqualified CDL drivers and telling students English proficiency isn’t required. We walk through what the allegations say, why federal CDL English rules exist, and how “cutting corners” in driver training can...

If politics feels like it’s getting weirder every year, we make the case that it’s because policy isn’t the driver, culture is. I start by laying out why hearts and minds rarely change during debates or campaign stops, and why the stories we tell through schools, movies, social media, and everyday habits quietly decide what voters will demand from government later. From there, we get specific with...

Texas politics moves fast, but the receipts move faster. We start with the Fifth Circuit clearing the way for Texas SB4 to take effect again, not by ruling on the merits but by saying key challengers lacked standing. That procedural win still matters because it reopens state-level penalties for illegal entry and illegal re-entry, plus a state process that can speed up removal. I also zoom out to t...